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The Deepak Saga:Who is this Tan Sri Lawyer?

Bar Council behaves like the MACC on Who is this Tan Sri Lawyer?

by MCLM’s Hari Ibrahim

“We have also received yesterday a letter from [lawyer-activist] Haris Ibrahim requesting the Bar Council to launch an investigation to identify the lawyer (s) concerned, when it appears to us that Haris may know the identity of these lawyers.”

Really, my purpose in sending the letter was not to cause speculation and confusion.Quite the contrary.

I merely asked that the Bar Council investigate to (1) identify the solicitor(s) concerned, and (2) ascertain if there was any impropriety in the preparation of SD2.It now appears to the Bar Council that I know the identity of the lawyer(s)?

“I have received confirmation from 3 independent and reliable sources as to who this scumbag is”.

Surely the Bar Council will not read this to mean I have direct knowledge of the acts in question, rather than knowledge of informants, albeit, in my opinion, reliable, relating to these acts.

In my letter to the Bar Council, I had narrated 17 sets of facts before I posted two questions which I felt were of importance.

1. Did the solicitor(s) who drew up SD2 take instructions from Bala prior to drafting the same that was finally affirmed by Bala?

2. Given that by the terms of SD2, Bala would be admitting to an offence of swearing out a prior false statutory declaration, was it not incumbent upon the solicitor(s) concerned in its preparation to have taken instructions from Bala and to have warned him of the consequences of affirming the statutory declaration that was being drawn up for his affirmation?

The second question, for me, sums up the issue of concern. Now, before I say more on this second question, you might find the following information helpful.

Section 42 of the Legal Profession Act, 1976 (LPA) lays out the objects and powers of the Malaysian Bar.

The very first purpose of the Bar : to uphold the cause of justice without regard to its own interests or that of its members, uninfluenced by fear or favour.

Now the Council president has urged that if anyone has compelling evidence, that they step forward to “lodge such evidence together with a complaint immediately with the disciplinary board”.

Can the Bar Council make the complaint?Section 99 of the LPA relates to complaints to the Disciplinary Board. Sub-section (3) states : Nothing in this section shall be taken to preclude the Bar Council or a State Bar Committee from making any complaint of its own motion to the Disciplinary Board against an advocate and solicitor or a pupil.

Of course it would be wholly irresponsible for the Council to lodge a complaint without prior investigation.

And to ascertain the name(s).

And if there was any impropriety.

Which is all that my letter that caused speculation and confusion asked the Council do.

Is it powerless to investigate?

The Malaysian Bar is powerless to investigate?

Do not the decent lawyers remaining at the Bar want to get to the bottom of this?

Back to the second question I posed in my letter.

Section 57 of the LPA deals with specific powers of the Bar Council. 57(b) provides that the Bar Council shall have power to answer questions affecting the practice and etiquette of the profession and the conduct of members.

Hmm, maybe my letter was poorly worded and I should have put the second question as one requiring an answer from the Bar Council.

Never mind, maybe one of you keen young journalists can pose the same second question to the Bar Council for an enlightened response.

I mean, if the answer is that such conduct as is described in my question is well in keeping with the finest traditions of the Malaysian Bar and sits well with its primary purpose of upholding the cause of justice, then they can treat this matter as Gani Patail so often does.

Stamp my letter “NFA”.

FMT also reports :

Lim also said that the most important person in a complaint against a legal practitioner should be the victim himself, but the apparent “victim” has yet to come forward.

“Who is the victim here? Has the victim Balasubramaniam raised concerns about anything at this point? We need more facts, either from the victim or somebody else.”

“People must come forward with the facts. I’m not going on a fishing expedition… knocking on people’s office or doors for facts. This is not a case of clients money disappearing.

“This information is revealed by someone whose own background is cause for concern,” said Lim, referring to Deepak.

Asked if the Bar Council is reluctant to act, he said: “We cannot say we are not doing anything. Those with more facts, come forward. We will do what is necessary. Even at this time, we will look into this further if necessary,” he said.

29 thoughts on “The Deepak Saga:Who is this Tan Sri Lawyer?”

Bar Council President Lim Chee Wee, where is your “without fear or favour” ethos. I think that having read Haris Ibrahim’s letter, I can say that there is sufficient ground for you and your colleagues to commence an investigation into the matter. NFA (No Further Action) is not an option, no matter how powerfully connected this Tan Sri is. Gutless, that is what you and your colleagues are on the Bar Council.–Din Merican

It makes me sick that the same guy that drafted the sd review his own sd masquarading as macc,then decide his own sd shows not enough evidence for further investigation? N now the council is on zul hasnan rafiques side?..or was it his partner?
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone

I give you a hint… the lawyer Tan Sri’s initials are C.A (chartered accountant). Home come I know. I am in Butterworth and the Bar Council President in Kuala Lumpur, the center of rumormongering, does not know. He is without guts. Will Haris disclose the lawyer’s real name.?

On 17 Dec 2012, after Haris broadly hinted at the identity of the Tan Sri in question, Zaid Ibrahim also said some intersting things on the matter.

Malaysian Insider’s report included this:

“If one probes a little further, one will find that the same famous lawyer
sits as a member of the MACC’s operations review panel,” Zaid, a one-time de
facto law minister during the Abdullah administration, wrote.

But on that day itself, I went Googling for MACC operations review panel, and found the the “Check & Balance Mechanisme” webpage on the official MACC website.,

However, when I scrutinised the webpage on the MACC website, it made no sense. Seems to have been changed. The bottom of the page had this note: “Last Update : 11 Dec 2012″, which also looks dicey. The (changed?) webpage remains the same when I looked a few minutes ago.

Googling further in search of the MACC Operations Review Panel Tan Sri lawyer… there were a number of very interesting gems which some may view as cause to question the (changed?) information on the MACC webpage.

Including LoyarBurok’s “Got questions for MACC?” published 6 December 2012.

I search the MACC website and got his name . I also search the internet for jokes , my favorite is the ‘ lawyer jokes ‘ follow by blonde and the bar jokes.
Extract from the Free Dictionary site :
“ Q. What is the difference between a catfish and a lawyer?
A. One is a scum-sucking, bottom-feeding scavenger. The other is a fish. ”

The fog has cleared somewhat… searching the MACC “Check & Balance Mechanisme” webpage got me to this (the Google searches I had carried out previously only led to the “Check & Balance Mechanisme” webpage).

The reputaion of the legal parctioners and their professional body is at `risk of being relegated further down the scale of respect in the international community. The silence of the Bar councile members on this issue will reverberate internationally and in will make them hang their head down in disgrace if no proper invetsigation is carried out by this professional body.

Further, the so called victim is exiled with fear to to his well being in Mlaysia. Further the victim is powerless to seek relief and is fleeing from injustice. Com on Bar Council, you have a duty to uphold the intergrity of your profesdsional members by weeding out the worms ….obsucating with words wont get you far.

I think the Bar Council chairman is right to raise questions and seek confirmations. If a person is accused of wrongdoing, he has a right to a fair trial, which means, looking at evidence for and against the accuse in a fair manner.

Credibility of the accuser comes into play too. If Ibrahim Ali accuses non-Malays of trampling on Malay rights, would you immediately go after the non-Malays?

Let the BC Chairman do his job as he should, being one of the protector of justice in Malaysia. Continue to pressure him to do his job but don’t force him to make a decision based on public opinions. It should be based on regulations of the Bar Council and the laws of Malaysia. If we make the Chairman forsake this important principle, then we are no better than Najib, UMNO and Barisan Nasional and their cronies.

Is Tan Sri Dato Cecil Abraham a lawyer ? I am looking for a lawyer to draft a Statutory Declaration regarding the ownership of a car I own which my neighbour says the car is his. I heard Tan Sri Dato Cecil Abraham (or his son ) has indepth experience in preparing SDs recognised by the court. Can someone confirm? A few lawyers I checked out declined to help because of their workload and court commitments.

There are facts and crediblle circumstances that have been placed before the Bar Council to draw a reasonable inference that one of their members may well have breached the statutory Code of Ethics as a legal professional. It is now incumbent upon the the Bar Council to draw sustainable inference to instiute investigations into the conduct of of one or two of its members .i that is if the Bar council wants to be seen as squeaky clean ,one which it must uphold.

The procedural fairness is excercised in the investigation process and only after the finding can the bar council can determine if its member /s in question is to be given clean bill of health. Harris has provided sufficient facts and circumstances in nhis letter for the bar council to act.

“I am looking for a lawyer to draft a Statutory Declaration regarding the ownership of a car I own which my neighbour says the car is his ” Ol’ Frank

To claim ownership your name has to be on the certificate of title. No loyar burok armed with pen and paper can help you declare ownership of anything.

The point being if a lawyer who drafts an affidavit for a client – affidavit being a self-serving statement if based only on belief or a statutory declaration – knowing it to be false then this lawyer has breached the code of professional ocnduct. All lawyers know what that means.. For UMNO lawyers they would be rewarded with a weekend trip to Patpong. If Husin does it he should expect his sorry ass to be spanked by Dato’s security aide, Goolbatok Singh.

If a person is accused of wrongdoing, he has a right to a fair trial, which means, looking at evidence for and against the accuse in a fair manner. — ordinary rakyat
————————

I am no lawyer nor an ordinary rakyat, just an ordinary Joe the plumber.

If a person is accused of wrongdoing, he checks with his UMNO local representative for the right judge and the going price for the crime he has been accused of. Alternatively, he could see Justice VK Lingam in his chambers who will then fix the judge for him – for a price of course. That is the definition of a ‘fair trial’ in Malaysia. It has been that way since the country’s top judge was unceremoniously booted out and the Bar Council becomes the nation’s house of ill repute and the legal profession, a profession second only to the oldest profession in the world. Need I say more??

The “bigger” question is whether this Deepuck J can be trusted for his sordid revelation?? I’ve seen too many of this kind made u-turns…Why now?? …after been booted out by Jibby and Rossy??…As the Malay saying “Musang yang berbulu ayam”,and another saying “Saperti meludah kelangit, akhirnya jatuh ke muka sendiri “…Wonder what, when, why and how politics are mind-boggling and ‘less-dirt’ to some??

I think Bar Council is being cautious, I would do the same too. Prosecution are base on evidence not hearsay. Bar Council is already under HEAVY attack from the Federal Government, NGOs and Muslim extremist. There are a lot of hates going on and negative remarks towards Bar Council to the brim, which only makes sense to the kampung folks and UMNOputras but not to the majority of the Rakyat.

Vultures are waiting at the sides and circling in the sky for Bar Council to make a blunder to destroy all the credibility that Bar Council has build up over the years. Bar Council cannot afford to make a mistake at these 11th hour before the 13th GE.

Bala and Deepak, both have no credibility at all or perhaps questionable reliability but we can read between the lines and we can extract what is the truth. We Malaysian have to thank them for it.

The only possibility to move forward is that Bala and Deepak must BOTH come forward to give a press release. But their agenda is not to link the Tan Sri Lawyer, their more concern about their personal interest and money due to them. Naming Tan Sri Lawyer would not provide any monetary gain. That is secondary to Bala and Deepak. That is Part One.

Part Two, Bala and Deepak would get sued for defamation from Tan Sri Lawyer, because it is only heresay and no prove. I am sure Tan Sri Lawyer will make them have erectile dysfunction for the rest of their lives. It not a solid case as in korek, korek, korek. A solid case as korek, korek, korek did not even get any judgement. By comparison, it is better left at it is. We the Rakyat already made our judgement, the Rakyat’s judgement is much more powerful from the court room. We already given the verdict to korek, korek, korek, Election Commission, scorpene, Altantuya, Husband & Spouse number one team and Tan Sri Lawyer. We only need the kampung folks to understand it.

This is about professional “misconduct”. We, Malaysian has much more important issue at hand. In the loop, about the “misconduct”, my first priority is…

First: Who ordered Altantuya to be C4ed?
Second: Who is behind the corruption of Scorpene deal and pocketed the money?

The rest “criminal” acts below the above list.
The Rakyat already given the verdict, it just that the judgement has been paralysed by the corrupt regime.

we lawyers know who this tan sri is. There can only be one father and son tag team who goes around court believing they are god’s gift to the world, although the son who is a small “fart” pretends to be better than his father. As the saying goes, ” father, son and the holy ghost”. Cheap skates and utterly dishonest. Was the tan sri award a federal gift.

“…The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) operations review panel clarified today that senior lawyer CECIL ABRAHAM, who was allegedly linked to private eye P Balasubramaniam’s second statutory declaration (SD), had no hand in the panel’s decision to stop the investigation against the latter.
…..Since last week, Malaysiakini has attempted to contact Cecil, who is a senior partner of the legal firm of Zul Rafique and Partners, through telephone, writing,
facsimile and email, but has yet to receive any response. ..”

No loyar burok armed with pen and paper can help you declare ownership of anything.- Mr Bean

Mr Bean,
you did not catch my drift when I posted my comment earlier about my car. Of course not, the SD is irrelevant for my car. The intent was on another subject in my posting. Perhaps the coming of the end of year festivities can cause some drowsiness . My apologies for the confusion,,, but thanks for the advice anyway.